Thursday, August 07, 2014

"We are being butchered under the banner of 'There is no God but Allah'"

It is impossible to hear the anguished wailing of this Iraqi MP and not be hauled to the depths of her misery and despair. You might shed a tear watching it, because it is harrowing. Her name is Vian Dakheel, of Iraq's Yazidi tribe (also Yezidi, Êzidî) - an ethno-religious group whose presence in the region pre-dates that of both Christians and Muslims. Ethnically, they are Kurdish; religiously, they practise a monotheistic syncretised fusion of Islam and Zoroastrianism. Beneath their one true god are seven deities - the Heptad - the most important of which is Tawsi Melek, which translates as 'Peacock Angel' or 'Peacock King'. Tracing their origins back to 600 BC, it is not unreasonable to say that they are the oldest religious community in what we now call Iraq.

Up until a week ago, there were around 800,000 of them living in the Nineveh province of northern region. But the Sunni-Salafist Islamic State have descended in their murderous droves, and the towns of Zumar and Sinjar have been cleansed of these devil-worshipers, for Tawsi Melek may also be rendered 'Shaytan', the Arabic word for 'devil' or 'demon'. And so they have suffered persecution at the hands of Muslims for centuries.

It is estimated that some 2,000 were murdered and as many as 40,000 have fled into the mountains to avoid the slaughter. The children are now dying of thirst. Exposed to the heat of Mount Sinjar, the elderly and vulnerable adults will soon follow.

This is genocide. The Yazidi are being systematically wiped off the face of the earth. Vian Dakheel demands that the Iraqi Parliament act to repel ISIS/Islamic State, which appears to have its advocates in the legislature. Another MP Haji Ghandour told reporters: "In our history, we have suffered 72 massacres. We are worried Sinjar could be a 73rd." And we read: “People were terrified,” said Ilias al-Hussani, 27, who had been trekking through the mountains for 10 hours. “They are savages. We’ve seen what they’ve done to people of their own faith. Imagine what they would do to us non-Muslims.”

The Chaldean-Assyrian Christians, Maronites, Melkites and Copts are also being "butchered under the banner of 'There is no God but Allah'". They, too, are fleeing into the mountains for refuge, as Christ exhorted at the time of the end. They, too, are being reviled, persecuted, and their children murdered. But we're not hearing an awful lot about it.

Except via Canon Andrew White, who writes today:

The Massacre of all continues. We are now in Erbil supporting
to various church leaders here. The Yazidis have now come under huge
attack. This group is similar to the Zoroastrians and at the best of
times they are a discriminated and despised minority. What we have heard
from some of the Church leaders is more than horrendous. Just like last
week a felt I could not show the pictures so today I fell I cannot tell
the whole story especially about the children.

Now they head toward
Erbil. This is supposed to be the one safe area in Iraq but yesterday
evening the whole of Erbil went into total panic with news that ISIS was
moving towards Erbil. It is not here yet but it may indeed be on its
way. Meanwhile over a hundred people where killed in Baghdad last night.

There is one other person here doing what we are doing with his wife.
Dr Plumb and his wife Peggy are both in their late 70's, they are
Mormons have been here several months using all their own money. He is
our closest friend here. All the time people say to me how can you work
with a Mormon. Well he is the only other person here doing the work of
Jesus caring for the poor and the dying and we love each other.

Our neighbour is the one who has need. Our brother is the one who helps us to meet that need - in this instance, caring for the poor and the dying. Louis Raphael I Sako, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, writes:

..speeches are good for nothing, so too declarations that rehash condemnations and indignation; the same can be said for protest marches. In addition, while appreciating the generosity of our donors, we would say that donations and fundraising too are not what will solve our problems. We have to demand a large-scale administrative [governmental] operation on an international level. There is in fact the need for awareness, in conscience, regarding this simple human principle: the demand for real actions and solidarity because we are before a crisis related to our very existence, facing the fact that "we will be or we will not be."

This is an appeal from the bottom of the heart in the search for a solution that lies uniquely in the hands of the international community and above all with the great powers. We address ourselves profoundly to their consciences and that they should review their positions and to re-evaluate the impact of the situation of today.

These powers face a human and moral responsibility. It is no longer reasonable to take recourse to double standards. They are called to free themselves from their narrow interests and to unite themselves in a political and peacekeeping solution that puts an end to this conflict. These powers must vigorously exercise pressure on those who support financially and train militarily these factions and so cut short these sources of violence and radicalisation.

Concerning the Christians of Iraq, in our pastoral ministry towards them, we also call upon the international community: our Christians are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, as too they are in need of an efficient, true and permanent protection that reassures them that there is no end to their existence, whose origins are so deeply rooted in Iraq; this also concerns Christians in other regions of the Middle East that are burning and being torn apart.

We also appeal to our brothers and sisters around the world, that they too be truly with us in solidarity at this our time of suffering this terrible ordeal; that they live with us this feeling of solidarity as if belonging to the same family.

There is the heartfelt plea: "..the need for awareness, in conscience, regarding this
simple human principle: the demand for real actions and solidarity
because we are before a crisis related to our very existence.."

The Prime Minister has asked the Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP to assume the Faith portfolio previously held by Baroness Warsi. There have already been strong objections, though, in fact, Mr Pickles always had ultimate responsibility for DCLG policy, which includes matters of faith and integration. But the Baroness was viewed by many (and known to be by a few) as something of a hurdle to progress in this area: she convened a committee on religion and belief, but her view of Islamist terrorism was never quite that of the Prime Minister or the Prince of Wales. Now gone, we can expect to see not only changes in tone, but policy.

Secretary of State, there is an urgent need for awareness. And then there must be real actions. We pray you will hear the weeping and wailing.

97 Comments:

A lack of knowledge (familiarity, education) has lot to do with the ghastly imbalance shown by the media in its coverage of the strife in the Middle East.

Most people know about the "Palestinian problem". They can probably locate Gaza, Israel, Jerusalem on a map, guess the populations, they might even have read a book or seen a TV programme about the "Six Day War" or the "Yon Kippur War". The names Rabin, Carter, or Yasser Arafat, might even ring a bell. They might even know where Damascus is.

But, Christians in the Middle East, where, who, how many, and who the heck are the Yazidi???? Where have they been for the last 100 years! Mosul, isn't that the name of a German river?

If Your Grace knows anyone who could write this up for publication on his blog, I think it would be very helpful.

P.S. As for the BBC, a Radio 4 discussion on the slaughter of Christians tells you all you need to know about the BBC.

"There is one other person here doing what we are doing with his wife. Dr Plumb and his wife Peggy are both in their late 70's, they are Mormons have been here several months using all their own money. He is our closest friend here. All the time people say to me how can you work with a Mormon. Well he is the only other person here doing the work of Jesus caring for the poor and the dying and we love each other."

Amen. I have said before that when we see this sort of catastrophe unfolding, I become so ashamed of my part in the petty squabbles between Christian denominations.

Pope Francis pointed us very firmly back to this in his sermon a few days ago

In the face of this sort of disaster when we feel so helpless, there are only three things that we can do. Send what money and aid we can, pray, and force the issue into the public eye where the politicians who would prefer to ignore the whole thing can't look away from it. Thank you, Your Grace.

When is Jon Snow going to fly out to what remains of Iraq to report on this for Channel 4 News? When is Baron Warsi, who is still a Member of the House of Lords, going to speak out about it? When will "British" Muslims take to the streets to demonstrate against such persecution and show that it is not in their name?

When is the Prime Minister, who flew to Poland before the last general election to try and persuade the Polish government to be more supportive to the Gay agenda (and to gain votes at home) going to speak out about it? OK, I now he is on holiday but what is our Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg doing about it? What are our largely useless MPs doing about it?

What is Prince Charles saying about it? He has an opinion on most things. What are the Pope, the leaders of the Orthodox Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, etc. etc. doing about it?

What are the leaders of the Muslim world doing about it? What is the United Nations doing about it? What is NATO doing about it? After all it intervened in Afghanistan.

What is the man who used to be called "the Leader of the Free World" doing about it?

The West was morally bankrupted by its earlier intervention in Iraq that created the conditions that have led to the current disaster. When will we learn that “making mischief on Muslim soil” only unites them all against the “infidel”.

A distraught population has watched the Iraqi army flee from IS and that army itself is barely able to survive, much less secure its own areas in the face of an enemy as brutal, as driven, and as well-equipped as the Caliphate. The burden of responsibility remains with the tottering government of Iraq no one is going to volunteer to be an air force for the Shia.

Meanwhile armed groups of Iraqi Kurds are engaged in fights with Islamic State militants only 25 miles from the city of Erbil. The Kurds are under extreme pressure in this battle because they are short on supplies and IS out-gun them with heavy weaponry which they captured from the Iraqi army. Canon White and his people are in great danger in Erbil. We must pray that the Peshmerga can hold the line against IS. There is no other force that can.

I agree with everything said by LibertyPhile. (And very well expressed!)

I think there may, also, by an element of puzzlement for the Media at this uncharacteristic behaviour by the Religion of Peace.

If it had been Catholics, or evangelical Protestants (the sort of people who impose their social views on others, and cause wars) that would have been far more understandable, and the Media would have been far more eager to report it.

Thank you for a very much needed report Dr Cranmer.Please do not stop. We know that many influential people read your Blog, even if they keep it secret. You are the only one to continue the pressure on them or so it seems.We must all persevere until those that ignore this evil butchery of the helpless & unarmed population in Iraq is recognised by the World & powers of Western Government & the Media act & report as they should.

Shame on you World leaders also on the deaf & dumb media. You are all guilty of subterfuge & have the Blood of the helpless & innocent on your hands.

The world knows the right and moral action to take in this situation. However, those in a position to act see no advantage to their economic or geo-strategic interests so to do. They do not rely on the media. A divided, balkanised Iraq suits the West and other powers.

Popular political pressure through greater public awareness of the barbarity going on may change this. But does the 'man in the street' really care? For him it'll just be another religious war and he'll play a bit of John Lennon to salve what's left of his conscience.

The most charitable explanation for the MSM’s failure to report Muslim attacks on Christians is that the press and broadcasters believe that keeping the public ignorant of Islam’s hatred of Christians will help keep the peace. In contrast, Muslim attacks on the Yazidi can be safely reported because they have no repercussions for inter-community relations in Britain. It’s the same thinking that, in the wake of terrorist attacks, inspires politicians to issue their lies about the peaceful nature of Islam. In the words of the former Tory MP George Walden:

‘I’d be so alarmed by the situation that I’d do everything possible to suggest it was under control. It’s up to politicians to play mood music in a crisis, and up to the people to understand that there’s little else governments can do. The last thing they can say is that we face a threat to which we can see no end because it’s based on a fundamental clash of cultures. On the IRA we told the truth; on the Islamic problem, we lie.’

Thank you indeed for putting all this in front of us, as no one else will speak out for truth.

Great is the ignorance of those in the western media and the governments who simply lack information or understanding of who these groups are and what is happening. Great is the guilt of those few in government who do have the knowledge of the unfolding situation, and have some understanding of what is happening, yet continue saying absolutely nothing. Their names are known to heaven.

I think that all those, of whatever faith, who care for the survival of those who have fled to safety must pray for the military success, perhaps against the odds, of the brave Pershmerga, the Kurdish fighters. The Kurds are also, simply as a people, well worth supporting. Indeed it beggars belief that we continue to pretend that the Iraq Parliament and Government is of any use, denying those who have a proven track record of behaving well, bravely and militarily effectively, the extra weapons and munitions that they clearly need.

Oh how our western leaders always back the wrong horse, wrong morally and wrong from the pragmatic point of view, of simple effectiveness. Both those factors should be fed into any decent and useful decision forming process. We are led by the morally bankrupt and the incompetent, whilst the mainstream media are largely useless at pointing to the truth or courageously speaking any truth they do identify, to the powerful.

It seems to me that there is a most urgent need both to supply the Kurds with suitable means of warfare, and for practical aid to be given to their civil authorities.

Jack is not so sure a divided Syria doesn't suit the Western powers and others. Could the underlying strategy be "leave them to it" - so long as the oil the West needs isn't threatened and so long as no one single State emerges as a regional, anti-Western super power? Let's face it, the apparent policy of a balancing of power in the region is failing. And watch this space for support of an independent Kurdistan. That'll get the Turks hopping. The aftermath of WW2 and breaking up the Ottoman Empire hasn't ended yet. What an abrogation of British and then United Nations responsibility that fiasco was!

Notwithstanding all the above, there is no excuse for the supposed 'world community of nations' failures to act to prevent genocide and launch a humanitarian effort, with military back-up as required, to protect the innocents caught up in this carnage and bedlam.

No, not as a strategic option. Small acts that are tactically possible could be considered.

A rescue of 40,000 Yazidi from Mount Sinjar, for example, is surely worth considering? They are in one confined area where helicopters could land and move the frail and young and provisions be supplied. Arms could be supplied to them for defensive purposes and ISIS below them could be targeted.

What's the issue with this? And why not similar action where there are defined groups being subjected to genocide? Short and sharp action with no long term aims.

David H, yours is the first practical suggestion: Reinforce the Kurds. They are the only actors in the region with the competence and courage to establish a zone of stability and refuge and to provide a base for any proyective or offensive operation the West might het around to contemplating. Alas, that would be going against the moldy old playbook of a unified democratic Iraq, which we are told is just about to emerge. Any day now. Alas, talk of such things would upset the valiant Iraqi "government" and Obama's friends, the Turks and the Muslim Brotherhood.

No, not as a strategic option. Small acts that are tactically possible could be considered. (Happy Jack)

Right. Just like in the movies. Perhaps call in the A Team, Van Damme, Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. "Small acts" of what? Handing out chocolate bars from backpacks and treating people with hip pocket first aid kits? And rest of the materiel to follow by courier?

Who knows what a few men like Yonatan Netanyahu and Ehud Barak or women like Sally Becker, might achieve? You know, a limited, focussed mission doing whatever is necessary to protect and rescue the innocents.

You must stop being so cynical.

"Scratch any cynic and you will find a disappointed idealist.”(George Carlin)

@ The Explorer (12:11)—By this stage, it can only be theory 2, and it isn’t just the media, the entire Establishment is taking part in the cover-up. I paraphrase a remark made by the Bishop of London in a TV documentary about Britain’s multicultural experiment: ‘We have to make it work. If we [the British] can’t, who can?’

When the Establishment decides on a course of action that is against our national interest (backing the wrong horse, as David Hussell says at 12:11), it is more or less obliged to lie to us in order ‘to make it work’. As with the dismantling of the nation state, so with the ramifications of multiculturalism.

Don't want to take the thread away from the topic (Or not for long) but:

1. 'Millennial'. The Millennium, for me, is happening now: the time between the two comings of Christ.

2. I didn't say nothing should be done. I was contrasting, implicitly, the Utopian narrative of things getting better and better with the Christian narrative of things remaining rocky, and deteriorating sharply at the end.

3. The great advantage of Christianity over Utopianism is that, if Christianity is true, all of history's injustices will eventually be rectified. I know of no other justification for God's allowing of the Holocaust, or the atrocities we are discussing at the moment.

1. Bring in other cultures and encourage them not to integrate. Multiculturalism

2. Merge your own nation in a bigger unit such as the EU. Don't think British, think European. Uniculturalism: the opposite solution.

We've had both of those inflicted on us simultaneously. Do you know why? Were there two groups of social theorists conducting different experiments and not co-ordinating with one another? Fighting each other, or not even aware of what the other group was doing?

@Roy "When will "British" Muslims take to the streets to demonstrate against such persecution and show that it is not in their name?"

How many Christians demonstrated that the Rwandan genocide, by the Lord's Day Christian Army was not in their name? Islam has no central authority figure which people can hide behind content in the knowledge or belief that a word from the Pope or Archbishop of Canterbury absolves them from demonstrating their own objection. Why should Muslims be forced to demonstrate that they do not support a minority who claim to act in the name of Islam. Perhaps, for fairness, every passenger alighting at ferryports and airports from Northern Ireland should be asked if they do not support loyalist or republican terrorists?

From what I've read, The Lord's Christian Army is only Christian in name. It's people follow a strange combination of native Animism, Spirit Worship and that sort of thing, with confused bits from Christianity thrown in for good measure. So it is a syncretistic religion, and not Christianity per se. Cuba has a similar faith, whose shrines I have seen. The name does however, I agree, confuse the nature of what they believe.

Why should Muslims be forced to demonstrate that they do not support a minority who claim to act in the name of Islam.

You know perfectly well that there are plenty of Muslims in this country and the West that will willing demonstrate against all sorts of things that they disapprove of. Salman Rhusdie's Satanic Verses, a mere, rather boring novel, sparked off demonstrations in Britain and other countries Thirty-seven people were murdered in Turkey, the Japanese translator of the novel was also murdered and there were attempts on the lives of the Italian and Norwegian translators.

One of the Danish cartoons that were the excuse for riots around the world a few years ago showed Mohammed wearing a bomb in the shape of a turban. Moslems said that was specially offensive because the cartoon associated Mohammed with terrorism. Well, Islamic terrorists associate Allah with terrorism don't they, and logically that is even more offensive.

Your comparison of Islamic terrorists with the Lord's Resistance Army (which was/is based in Uganda not Rwanda) is valid only in so far as they are terrorists too. How many churches and chapels in Britain have ever had "radical preachers" praising the Lord's Resistance Army? How many have urged support for their objectives? How many governments around the world sympathise with their objectives?

Why did that England cricketer wear an arm band supporting Gaza rather than the victims of terrorism in Syria or Iraq? Why did Baroness Warsi resign over Gaza and not over any of the even more serious issues in the Middle East?

If mostl British Muslims had a pietistic attitude to their religion, or were Sufis or were adherents of the Aga Khan's branch of Islam then I would agree with you that it would be very unfair to expect them to dissociate themselves for terrorists, but you know perfectly well that that there are far too many who are sympathetic to Jihadis and who seem reluctant to identify with this country.

Personally I'm tending towards the belief that we're entering the end times.

People casually dismiss this on the basis that there've always been wars, earthquakes etc. but the key passage is "when you see ALL these things". And to be honest, there's plenty of prophetic scripture to look at - we don't have to rely purely on Jesus' discourse and the rather cryptic Revelation.

This is the first time in history that we have a simultaneous confluence of so many events which would fulfil scripture. And if these continue to occur within our generation then simply on the basis of probability I'd be inclined to see this as a unique period with prophetic resonance.

That's not to say interpretation is easy - it is not. That's not to say we don't act and pray, give and fast - we must. And that's not to say we should start setting dates - even Jesus wasn't aware of the time. But we were told to look for these times, to watch and be prepared (consider the foolish virgins) and so we should consider them.

“The Inspector looks on in alarm, as indeed we all do, as a new country is seemingly taking shape. Populated by the barking mad (it’s a racial thing) and guided by every evil contained in the Koran. It is to be the hell on earth that Mohamed sought for his followers. We can expect the growth of FGM, the extreme punishment of homosexuals and the relegation of women to that just higher than dog. There will be NO political parties, internal arguments will be settled by the gun. There will be no worshipping of other than Allah and there will feature a form of justice reliant on beating, maiming and killing. And as for education, well, that’s a Western thing apparently.”

What do you think chaps, a suitable introduction speech to the United Nations as this yet to be named country takes its seat there.

When this empire of raw Islamic filth is established, one does believe it will only be a matter of months before they start to find fault with ALL their neighbours. Islamic or no. And thus their boundaries set, shall be set wider still, and marked with the blood of all faiths and non.

Oh yes, nearly forgot and that would never do - as we politely stand and watch in horror as the growth in population of that part of the world is {AHEM} ‘held in check’.

By the way chaps, one is still of the opinion that if you want to stop Johnny Mohamed from his unnerving desert insanity, you gas him. He’ll fall to the ground at your feet whimpering, (…if he gets his breath back, that is…), and call you ‘Effendi, Effendi’ until you wave him away. He jolly well absolutely loves doing that and will honour you for ever. You see, you’ll have put him in his place, and he’ll think that’s so grand of you to bother with the unwashed likes of him. The Inspector quite enjoys playing his part too, though that enjoyment is probably a racial superiority thing which for some reason he should be incredibly ashamed about, or so he’s been told.

Now, one definitely had some gas left over from the last time. Ah, here it is, by the cooker….

“The ISIS militants attacked with mortars most of the villages of the plain of Niniveh, during the night of 6th-7th August and now they are controlling the area. The Christians, about one hundred thousand, horrified and panicked, fled their villages and houses [with] nothing but... the clothes on their backs. An exodus, a real via crucis, Christians are walking on foot in Iraq’s searing summer heat towards the Kurdish cities of Erbil, Duhok and Soulaymiyia, the sick, the elderly, infants and pregnant women among them. They are facing a human catastrophe and risk a real genocide. They need water, food, shelter…”

“Regarding the churches and church properties in the villages now being occupied by the ISIS militants, we have reports of destruction and desecration. The old manuscripts and documents are being burnt.”

“We appeal with sadness and pain to the conscience of all and all people of good will and the United Nations and the European Union, to save these innocent persons from death. We hope it is not too late!”

Happy Jack, the Raid on Entebe model can't work in this case. Not even the rescue missions examples of the Black Ethiopian Jews. The first involved small number of hostages and was a fluke or a miracle if you prefer, and the second involved compliance and cooperation with foreign governments. In this case we are talking about tens of thousands of people hiding hither and yon, scattered over a wide territory, with the meanies either on their heels or among them. The scale of the operation would be huge. Suppressing the Caliphate forces is one thing, not that it would be easy by any means, but the logistics infrastructure is the real challenge. Transport vehicles, spare parts, road crews and repair stations, tons of food, mobile first aid stations and hospitals, base camps, air fields, bridging equipment, fuel depots....

So, the only power capable of handling this would be good old Uncle Sam or a coalition of Western allies. Forget the UN, unless you want to see a repetition of the incompetence, theft and rapes we saw in Africa. It's not that I'm a pessimist, but with the short time available between now and the progress of ISIS, not to mention the onset of winter, nothing can be done without determined political will. And the latter is wholly lacking.

And Ivan, I'm not claiming to be a strategic or even tactical mind, but I have do have experience with transport logistics, both military and civilian and a basic undetstanding of minimal requirements and time frames. What ever you think about that lackluster sector, nothing, absolutely nothing crawls, flies, moves or happens without it.

Avi: "David H, yours is the first practical suggestion: Reinforce the Kurds. They are the only actors in the region with the competence and courage to establish a zone of stability and refuge and to provide a base for any proyective or offensive operation the West might het around to contemplating."

I'm with that at the moment, grasping at straws as I am. I dunno if it's possible or if the powers there would allow it but I think the UN or the West should establish military bases there and provide a proper sanctuary, with a view to military action against this Islamic State thing in future if it survives.

Looks like time is running out. IS seems to have taken the Mosul dam. With the other dams they took earlier this means they have a stranglehold on the water supply in a very dry country. They could restrict supply or turn the dams into WMD's by flooding towns downriver.

Kurds low on ammo now falling backto defend Erbil. A piece from C4 news showed Kurdish untrained volunteers being given Kalashnikov's but rationed to just two magazines each.

Some US commentators saying that supplies, ammo and advisors should be sent to the Kurds and Iraq gov but as an initiative this is more than a bit overdue. One cannot establish a logistical chain out of thin air.

The idea of Churchill using gas weapons was mooted by him in Iraq (ironically enough) in 1919, during a revolt there in the time of the Mandate. This is a quote from wikipedia :

"I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected."

So people are dying up a mountain and what's on TV? 'Shed of the year'...

Also some to raise as an issue : Iraq has an army of 200,000, trained by the US/Britain. What are they doing and why are they not intervening here? Is it because they are sitting back and letting the Christians die, like the Soviets did during the Warsaw uprising in 1944?

Is that not a reason to give the Christians & others asylum in the west and split the country up into its major ethnic/religious groupings Kurds, Sunni, Shia ?(thus answering Happy Jack and Carl Jacobs on another thread about why we should not just help Christians).

Goodness! Lord Palmerston would know what to do with this new-fangled bloodthirsty Caliphate. In modern parlance, I believe the phrase is. 'Nuke the bastards...' A tad extreme, perhaps, but salutary...

Indeed Hannah. The uninformed believe there to be only one type of gas, the deadly poison kind. There is of course a wonderful menu to which to really bugger up a murderous human bent on killing, without killing him.

1. The Iraqi army. IS is a cross-border caliphate: Iraq and Syria. I understand the Iraqi army was outgunned by the Sunni incursion from Syria. I think I read in a CNN report (somewhere, anyway) that IS had captured some Iraqi army weapons.

2. Different ethnic areas. That seems an obvious solution, but it encountered problems years ago after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The oil in Iraq is not equally distributed across the country. So if you divide it up, who gets the oil-rich part?

CNN said the Americans were thinking about arming the Kurds, but were worried about future Kurdish independence agenda.

Rather interesting that the Iraqi muslims are the same kind of bastard today as they were a century ago. (A bit like Hovis, but with the bastard bit). That would suggest that racial profiling is, after all the detractors would have you believe, valid...

Iraq has an army of 200,000, trained by the US/Britain. What are they doing and why are they not intervening here? Is it because they are sitting back and letting the Christians die, like the Soviets did during the Warsaw uprising in 1944? (Hannah)

The Iraqi army is a classical Arab mess of untrained, undisciplined and religiously fractured peasants led by officers who wouldn't make sergeant in most armies, theoretically "fighting" for their fearless leader-in-hiding, al-Maliki, who is a corrupt and stupid ass of the first order. That is the material the Coalition put its chips down on. ISIS took Mosul with 800 (sic.) men, miraculously avoiding the danger of getting trampled by 30,000 (sic.) fleeing Iraqi soldiers or tripping over the tons of weapons, amo and supplies (not to mention uniforms) they dropped in their terror. The ISIS fighters are superbly self-trained guerrillas in the class of the Vietcong, motivated and led by former Saddam officers, and officers who were replaced by al-Maliki when he staffed his corps with sycophants and gave out plush appointments for baksheesh.

Even though the main topic on Ch 4 News tonight was Gaza and the shooting dead by Israeli snipers of an innocent Palestinian citizen as he called out for his family in the wreckage, there was also a piece again about Iraq and the 50,000 Yazidis fleeing to the mountains. They showed IS blowing everything to kingdom come and the Kurds doing their best to hold them off, but it looks hopeless. They also mentioned the persecuted Christians fleeing and showed a map of Iraq naming the towns that have fallen to IS and the ones under threat. Christian town of Qaraqosh been taken, as has the biggest dam in Iraq the Mosul Dam. Meanwhile IS marches on.

It would seem Washington (Ambassador James Jeffrey speaking) don't really give a damn, as Krishna Guru Muhrti pointed out they could spend millions on getting rid of Saddam, but can't spend anything on setting up a safe haven for Christians and minority religions or stopping IS Jeffrey gave some waffle about Obama's speech in June thinking of sending weapons to the Kurds to fight on the ground and maybe some air strikes but expensive blah blah..... “we need a new government in Baghdad that will unite Sunnis and Shias and get on with everyone” he said and more blah blah.

He means of course Iraq needs a government that America can boss around and exploit to make them huge profits as their own economy isn't doing that well. Remember Saddam wanted to use the Euro to trade with and was not playing the game the right way.

...the main topic on Ch 4 News tonight was Gaza and the shooting dead by Israeli snipers of an innocent Palestinian citizen as he called out for his family in the wreckage...

Hmm. So the media is recycling inflammatory crap. Old footage of Hamas engaging in some "friendly fire" against a rival faction. The IDF wasn't even in the area and no sniper worth his name in any army would waste ammo or reveal his position to pop a useless civilian.

True, Miss Hannah, forms of guerrila blitzkrieg are meant to frighten undisciplined armies and unarmed civilians and to cause temporary chaos with fleeing refugees which temporarily mucks up their enemies' plans. At the same time ISIS have stretched themselves thin in their success and are doing a poor job of getting civilian support...to say the least...without which they can not sustain themselves for long. As for the dams they took, unless ISIS managed to grab a stupendous quantity of explosives and allowed a few structural engineers to live, they'all probably be safe...a dam is not easy yo breach, given the forces it's designed to withstand.

@ The Explorer (14:32)—I can only guess but I imagine the multiculturalists and the EU enthusiasts sing from the same hymn sheet.

It may have been the insane Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi who first suggested making Europe ethnically heterogeneous, as part of his plan to replace all the races of the world with one race, the Eurasian Negroid. Well, all the races except the one beginning with J. I’m not making this up. I only wish I were. Is the influx of Third Worlders the Coudenhove-Kalergi plan in action? Are the élites really that unbalanced?

And long before the Coudenhove-Kalergi dream becomes reality, a multicultural population with its inherent tensions provides the élites with the perfect cover to increase the power of the state while pretending they are acting in the interests of the people.

By the way, there is one explanation for Third World immigration we can dismiss out of hand—the official explanation about making good labour shortages in post-war Europe.

I say, Inspector, can I bother you to have a word with that Galloway fellow who declared his city, Bradford, an Israeli-free zone? I had in mind to visit that good city this summer on my way back from Israel to view its wealth of Arabic graffiti and to conduct a photo-safari among the herds of mendicant Muslims it apparently has no shortage of.

JR @ 22.04, at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, so much can be sheeted home to those polar opposites, the Frankfurt School (Marxists) on the one hand and the Bilderberg Group (lightly house-trained Nazis) on the other. As we know, both ideologies excelled in their pioneering ideas about social engineering. A fusion of the brightest and best of the two schools gets us pretty much where we are today.

Supranationality is de rigeur to end nationalism, and turning out coffee coloured people by the score ends racial friction. The fly in the ointment is religion, and as yet neither group has proposed an effective solution.

Its hard to work the elites out, in order to achieve their objectives they should logically ban international sporting events, which aggravate nationalist sentiment. But the elites seem to have decided that these intensely competitive events are a substitute for war (true) and promote community spirit, a greater good.

Your Grace, thinking about career paths, one can only hope that Canon Andrew White's extraordinary courage, piety and devotion is ear-marking him for the highest rank in the future. Canon Andrew is clearly a unique talent of great value to the Anglican communion.

Your Grace,Another sad report on the on going situation in Iraqi. One wonders at God's purposes in all this yet his people have suffered many times in the last 2000 years.

I am sure our new recumbent Minister of Faith will take control with alacrity. He is after all a great student of Faith. A few years ago he went to talk to some sixth formers at a Christian school and told a friend who was escorting him that he was brought up a Christian don't you know. "My parents were Christian Scientists".

I know he has done some good things; but God help this generation from such buffoons.

Hardly Avi. One has not long got over ‘nuclear free’ cities in the UK where the socialist administrations therein where rather hoping mother Russia wouldn’t drop a 50 megaton on them, for some reason that escapes the Inspector.

"In this case we are talking about tens of thousands of people hiding hither and yon, scattered over a wide territory, with the meanies either on their heels or among them."

Happy Jack's suggestion was particular and specific:

"A rescue of 40,000 Yazidi from Mount Sinjar, for example, is surely worth considering? They are in one confined area where helicopters could land and move the frail and young and provisions be supplied. Arms could be supplied to them for defensive purposes and ISIS below them could be targeted.

What's the issue with this? And why not similar action where there are defined groups being subjected to genocide? Short and sharp action with no long term aims."

IS don't need to blow the dam just open the sluices. They already have form for this. Earlier the group's fighters captured the smaller Fallujah Dam on the Euphrates River when they seized the nearby city of Fallujah. Repeatedly, the militants have used it as a weapon, opening it to flood downriver when government forces move in on the city.

Opening the floodgates of the larger Mosul dam would flood Bagdhad. They might be mad enough to do that rather than smart enough to use the threat as a coercive tool.

Gulp. Gosh, Inspector, I say no more man; you're a veteran and you've done your bit. A body can only bear so much. I wonder if Bradford was or still is a nuclear-free city as well as being Israeli-free. Perhaps not anymore on the former front, with all those university-trained Al Quaida men eager to cook up something in a basement. Better to stay clear of its city walls, then.

HJ, how many helicopters do you think are needed to supply and arm 40,000 civilians hiding in a mountainous terrain with obstructions and cross-winds? Who will establish secure and safe drop zones and landing zones and coordinate effective air-lifts? Where would the choppers be based, how far will the fuel take heavily-loaded machines, how many choppers and pilots and support staff and technicians would you need? And suppressing ISIS below, which spreads among civilians in towns and villages? Of course it's doable, and I wish "someone" would do something about it, but you're talking about a major and complex operation and Obama hasn't the oompf left even for a minor one. The idiot pulled out and wasted thousands of lives spent on clearing out the Ba'athists and now thousands more on the mess he left behind with his sudden departure. Give peace a chance. Yeah. Anyhow, even if the US decided today to do something about, it would take two weeks at best to launch even a half-arsed job and by then, the vulnerable will be dead. I note that with complaints about the nerve of the US playing world cop, they are the first ones people think of when things get rough.

Jay Bee, agreed, but openimg sluices during the dry season and with thousands of runoff channel below is far less dramatic than breaching a dam. Old Saddam wasn't a fool when he planned and built...his taste for the cheesy and tacky notwithstanding. Baghdad is of little military value and Maliki will just move his useless carcass and his best troops to higher ground. By now the city is of little commercial and administrative worth...kind of like New Orleans, but with mosques and visiting Iranian mullahs. Might benefit from the rubble and trash clearance even....

After a period of spiritual preparation, the Inspector models himself on 'Peter the Hermit' and gathers together a 'People's Crusade' to march against ISIS. Discipline will be needed to avoid attacks on others en route.

@ bluedog (22:21)—Thank you for your sympathetic response! The remaking of nations, the abolition of nations, this is social engineering on a scale far beyond my imagining and I’m acutely aware that any attempt to explain it makes one sound as crazy as the people who are behind it. Escape from the EU and the defenestration of our corrupt élites are of vital importance.

If the West wants to it can find enormous resources, in mothballed equipment and idled soldiers and in the case of the Americans make the bondholders in China pay for transporting it. The spirit to help these unfortunate people is lacking; everything else flows from it.

Artificial nations are a curse. They represent a political expediency. Empires are usually their creators. Our country has made a fair few. Even continental europe has one, near us too, as we all know. At least in Belgium they refrain from physically attacking the other half, but there's not much love flowing between the language groups.

Yes, England has made mistakes. But does humanity ever learn ? I think not. If the EU ever becomes a true political union as its enthusiasts still hope, it would be the ultimate artificial country, or perhaps an empire ? I am not sure what is worse, perhaps an empire. I suppose it depends upon what type of artificial country and what type of empire. The British Empire had a "self dissolving" quality, according to Daniel Hannan (if I've remembered his name correctly), but assuming he was right, was that not due to an underlying tradition from the mother country that self determination must be the right destination ? I don't think that idea would find much traction amongst the euro-federalists.

Any way, apologies Your Grace, as I digress. I note that the Obama has authorised air strikes to check the northwards progression of Isis and and to arrange for air drops to the beleaguered ones on their mountain top. Mr Cameron is very concerned with them too, but he hasn't mentioned the Christians, of course.

Mr Explorer @ 22.44, you raise an important point, particularly in view of global warming.

Populations of northern European extraction are clearly threatened, and perhaps the growth of Islam is the Almighty's way of preparing us for climate change. Smart tailors will henceforth multi-skill to offer a pinstriped dish-dasha as well as more conventional suitings. One's bride's browser history will in future reflect diligent study of the latest offerings by Fatima's Burkha Boutique, as Mrs Proudie will no doubt confirm.

Talking about natural and unnatural nations it is a tragedy that the Kurds did not get their own nation after the break up of the Ottoman Empire. Even today the leaders of Western nations seem reluctant to help them.

While it would be wrong to use the example of the Kurds to deny the Palestinians nationhood it is strange how politicians who support the Palestinian cause (for their own state, that is, not for the destruction of Israel) are quite willing to oppose the case for a Kurdish nation.

Lebanon was also mentioned. I don't think it is an unnatural nation in a geographical sense, at least not from the standpoint of physical geography rather than human geography. It does have a mixed population of Christians, Muslims and Druze but they did manage to co-exist quite happily until the country was destabilised by events beyond its borders.

Airstrikes on ISIS(or whatever they are calling themselves) seems to be the way forward at the moment a temporary solution as it may be.At least out in the open ISIS will have no houses to run into and use the inhabitants as' human shields' as the do in Gaza.

Ivan, yes and there is the next best thing to doing nothing, which the US just authorized. Air strikes, hopefully on ISIS forces if they kindly present themselves and stand still for the experience and air drops of supplies, hopefully on refugees. And not the other way around. But no boots on the ground, Heavens save us from quagmires.

About His Grace:

Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues.

Cranmer's Law:

"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1 (100%).”

Follow His Grace on

The cost of His Grace's conviction:

His Grace's bottom line:

Freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may be insulted about their own beliefs, or indeed be offended, and that is something which they must simply endure, not least because some suffer fates far worse. Comments on articles are therefore unmoderated, but do not necessarily reflect the views of Cranmer. Comments that are off-topic, gratuitously offensive, libelous, or otherwise irritating, may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on any thread does not constitute their endorsement by Cranmer; it may simply be that he considers them to be intelligent and erudite contributions to religio-political discourse...or not.

The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning.Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961

British Conservatism's greatest:

The epithet of 'great' can be applied only to those who were defining leaders who successfully articulated and embodied the Conservatism of their age. They combined in their personal styles, priorities and policies, as Edmund Burke would say, 'a disposition to preserve' with an 'ability to improve'.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS.(Prime Minister 1979-1990)

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC.(Prime Minister 1957-1963)

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).(Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955)

I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC.(Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937)

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC.(Prime Minister 1885-1886, 1886-1892, 1895-1902)

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.Benjamin Disraeli KG, PC, FRS, Earl of Beaconsfield.(Prime Minister 1868, 1874-1880)

Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.Sir Robert Peel, Bt.(Prime Minister 1834-1835, 1841-1846)

I consider the right of election as a public trust, granted not for the benefit of the individual, but for the public good.Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.(Prime Minister 1812-1827)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.The Rt Hon. William Pitt, the Younger.(Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-1806)